This invention relates generally to social networking, and more specifically to structuring and managing pages maintained by a social networking system.
A social networking system frequently maintains various pages dedicated to a topic of interest, such as a brand, product, business, organization, person, or group. Pages may be created and managed by users of the social networking system. Users of a social networking system include individual users and non-individual entities, such as businesses, companies, and vendors. Individual users may express interest in (“like”) pages in the social networking system and post content on the pages, allowing users managing the pages or otherwise associated with the page to interact with other users through the social networking system.
Moreover, pages with similar content or topics of interest may be associated with each other or related via the social networking system. For example, multiple pages may be created for an entity, such as a company or a brand. If a company has numerous physical locations in a geographic region, a page may be created for each physical location; for example, a company may create a page associated with different retail outlets associated with the company. Thus, if a user searches for a page associated with the company, the user may be presented with multiple pages associated with the company's numerous physical locations. This may create confusion to the user as to which page is the official page or the most relevant page for viewing.
Additionally, a company or brand may create different pages for presentation to social networking system users in various countries or geographic regions. When a user in a particular geographic region searches the social networking system for a page associated with the company or brand, the user may be presented with multiple pages each associated with various physical locations and/or geographic regions in which the brand has a business or a commercial presence. The presented pages may include pages with different languages and/or content that is not relevant to the user, although a page associated with a geographic region including the user searching for content is most relevant to the user. For example, a user in France is likely most interested in a page written in French and displaying content relevant to users in France and has little interest in viewing a page written in Japanese. However, it may difficult or frustrating for a user to identify an official page for the business or which page is most relevant for the user's geographic region or preferred language from multiple pages. Additionally, an entity or brand may benefit from managing the brand experience for its users across geographic regions.